Tempted

“Eesh, that’s disgusting,” I said.

“Well, that’s your boyfriend.”

“But I brought food,” he said.

“Fine, you’re forgiven,” I said.

“Hey, just so you know, I’m sleepin’ right here in my old bed. So there won’t be any groping and making out going on because I’m not cool with that.” Stevie Rae was talking to Heath, but I answered.

“Uh, I have two words for girls who make out with their boyfriends with other girls in the room: Not okay. So you don’t need to worry about that stuff going on over here.” I patted my bed. “Heath is going to be good because we already talked about how our relationship is based on more than sex. Right, Heath?”

Stevie Rae and I skewered him with our eyes.

“Right. Sad and tragic, but right,” he admitted reluctantly.

“Good. Let’s eat, then I’ll help Z pack, and then we can get some sleep. Finally,” Stevie Rae said.

I was just drifting off to sleep, snugly curled into Heath’s strong, familiar arms when it hit me: Heath really couldn’t come with us.

“Heath,” I whispered. “We gotta talk.”

“Changing your mind about that no-making-out thing?” he whispered back.

I elbowed him.

“Ow, what?” he said.

“I don’t want you to get mad, but you really can’t go with me to Italy.”

“The hell I can’t.”

“Your parents will never let you miss that much school.”

“We’re on winter break.”

“No, you were on ice storm break. The storm’s clearing up. You’ll be back at school in a day or so,” I said.

“Then I’ll make up my homework when I get back.”

I tried a different tactic. “You’ve gotta stay here and focus on your grades. It’s your last semester before you go to college. If you mess up your grades now, you mess up your scholarship.”

“Look, this is simple. Broken Arrow has that online grade book thing, remember?”

“How could I forget something as totally annoying as my parental units being able to gawk at my grades and assignments every single day?” Then I clamped my mouth shut because I realized what I’d said.

“See! I can get my assignments online. I’ll stay caught up. You can even help me. Or, better yet, Damien can help me. No offense, Zo, but I think he’s a better student than you are.”

“I know he is, but that’s beside the point. Your parents will never let you go.”

“They can’t stop me. I’m eighteen.”

“Heath, please. I already feel bad enough about all the poo I’ve brought into your life. Don’t make me responsible for screwing up your last semester of school, getting you grounded until you leave for college, and putting your life in danger.”

“I’ve told you before I can take care of myself,” he said.

“Fine, let’s compromise. Call your parents when we get up and ask them if you can come to Italy with me. If they say yes, then you come with me. If they say no, you stay here and get your butt back to class.”

“Do I have to tell them about Kalona and that stuff?”

“I don’t think it’s smart for the general public to know there’s a fallen immortal and a crazy ex—High Priestess trying to take over the world. So, no, you don’t have to tell them that part.”

He hesitated and then said, “Okay, I can live with that.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Good, because I’ll be listening to the whole conversation so you won’t be able to bullpoopie me.”

“You know that’s not a real word, Zo.”

“It’s my real word. Go to sleep, Heath.”

He tightened his arms around me. “I heart you, Zo.”

“I heart you, too.”

“I’ll keep you safe.”

I fell asleep with Heath’s arms around me and a smile on my face, my last conscious thought was about how strong he felt and that I’d have to tell him I really appreciated how buff he’d been keeping himself.

My next thought was not conscious and it was totally not soothing: What in the hell am I doing on the roof of this castle again?

CHAPTER 30

Zoey

It was the same castle rooft op; there was no doubt about it. The orange trees were filled with fat fruit that scented the cool breeze. In the center was the same fountain shaped like a naked woman with water cascading from her raised hands. Seeing her twice, I realized why she looked familiar. She reminded me of Nyx, or at least of one of the faces I’d seen the Goddess wear. And then I remembered what I’d learned about this place—that it was the ancient site of the original Vampyre High Council, so it totally made sense that the fountain would look like our Goddess. I wanted to sit beside it and breathe deep the smell of citrus and the sea air. I didn’t want to turn where my gut was telling me to turn—and see who I knew I was going to see. But, like the snowball down the mountain, I couldn’t seem to control the avalanche that was happening to me, so I turned in the direction my soul was leading me.

Kalona knelt by the edge of the castle’s toothlike roof. His back was to me and he was on his knees. He was dressed, or rather, undressed, like he’d been the last time we’d been here—he had on jeans and that was it. His dark wings spread down around him, leaving only his bronze shoulders visible. His head was bowed, and he didn’t seem to know I was there. As if I couldn’t stop them, my feet moved toward him, and as I approached, I realized that he was kneeling exactly where I’d been standing when I’d flung myself off the rooftop.

I wasn’t far from him when I saw his shoulders tense. His wings rustled and then his head lifted and he glanced over his shoulder.

He was crying. Tears made wet paths down his face. He looked crushed, broken, completely defeated. But the instant he saw me his expression changed. His face was suff used with such incredible joy that my breath literally caught at his incomparable beauty. He stood, and with a shout of happiness strode toward me.

I thought he would pull me into his arms, but at the last second he checked himself so that he only lifted one hand as if he was going to touch my cheek, but his fingers stopped short of my skin, hesitated there for an instant, and then, without touching me, his hand dropped back to his side.

“You came back.”

“Dreams aren’t real. I didn’t die,” I said, though it was hard for me to speak.

“The realm of dreams is part of the Otherworld; don’t ever underestimate the power of what happens here.” He wiped his face with the back of his hand and, surprising me again, gave an embarrassed little chuckle. “I must seem foolish to you. I knew you weren’t dead, of course. Yet it still felt so real—so horribly familiar.”

I stared at him, not knowing what to say. Not knowing how to react to this version of Kalona—the version who looked and acted more like an angel than a demon. He reminded me of the Kalona who had surrendered to A- ya, willingly giving himself to the trap of her embrace with a vulnerability that still haunted me. It was such a contrast from the last time I’d been here, when he’d been in super-seduction mode, all groping me, and…

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Just exactly how can I be here again? I’m not sleeping alone, and I don’t mean I’m with one of my girlfriends. Or rather, friends who are girls,” I corrected hastily. “I’m sleeping in the arms of the human guy I’ve Imprinted. He and I are definitely more than friends. You shouldn’t be able to get in here.” I pointed to my head.